Nas Daily is a bit of a controversial man. He was recently in the news for shifting his office to Singapore (which is now his base) and to Dubai. When he moved to Dubai, he created a series of video which came under fire for being unrealistic and insensitive during Covid-19 times when cases were increasing and number of people dying increasing daily. Accusations that he had taken a lot of money to create videos showing Dubai in a different light when the world was buckling under travel pressure. He was also accused of being an Israeli agent as well, heping pave the way for relations between UAE and Israel. There was even a period when Muslims had called for boycotting Nas Daily due to his Israeli background.

However, before all of this happened, I loved watching his videos, under the name of Nas Daily- and I still do!

They are only 60 seconds long, informative, educational and often eye opening. He’s travelled the world to places where one wouldn’t usually go. He’d meet people who were doing innovate things, or helping out their communities in unique ways. He’s talked to people from all over, showing us what the planet is really all about: humans.

Regardless of their nationality, religion, caste, creed, age, sexuality, or anything else, he helped us see that beneath all this, what these people essentially are people like you and me. They have hopes and dreams and desire to create a better place in the world.

The man behind Nas Daily is Nuseir “Nas” Yassin. He is Palestinian-Israeli who grew up in the Arab sector in Israel. He left Israel in 2010 to study at Harard University and started working after graduation at Venmo. However, he quit his job, gathered his savings and travelled the world. He started creating videos and posting them on Facebook. Today, he has more than 13 million followers (and still counting) and 4.5 billions video impressions. He has relocated to Singapore with an office in Dubai.

He travelled the globe for 1000 days and instead of going to the typical tourist traps, he explored the unexplored regions, and brought us stories that we may never have heard of before.

“Nas Daily has become the most immersive travel experience ever captured, as it finally shows us what we’ve all been looking for: Each Other.”

His is the kind of life that makes me wish I had one too. Just to quit my job, and travel the world, and meet all these amazing people, and learn about their way of life. One, I can’t do that as I don’t have a passport like him (imagine the visa hassles!) and two, I don’t have dedicated team like he does to accompany him all over.

Which is precisely why I loved going through his book– it allowed me to travel the whole world from the comfort of my living room sofa.

Not to mention how he goes to Japan as well. The one country on my bucket list for as long as I can remember. I loved his two chapters on Japan and it only made me want to be more productive in working out my way to Japan.

It’s not all a bed of roses for him. He does talk about some of the more sensitive topics, including his own faith. These issues include: Money, Religion and Politics. He even brings up the issue of his own faith- is he even a good Muslim? He addresses this in a separate chapter. It takes guts and vulnerablity to even address something as personal as his faith to an audience world over.

The chapter on Pakistan is an interesting one. Technically speaking, he is not allowed to visit Pakistan because Israelis aren’t allowed into Pakistan. So what did he do? He approached his followers in Pakistan and was able to get a video made about Pakistan without even entering the country. It was a indeed a fun chapter to go through and shows how one can work around obstacles in life.

This is the kind of travel book I like to have on my bedside table- to inpsire myself, to motivate me and to regain hope that in an apathetic world like ours, there are a lot of people doing a lot of good! Whether it’s Rwanda, Mexico, Phillipines, or Papua New Guinea, Nas Daily has allowed me to see these people for who they are. They are people just like you and me.

Essentially, what the book ultimately showed me was how small we really are in the bigger scheme of things. We are all human beings. It is us who has created these barriers and boundaries. It us us who has created this world where we judge each other. Nas Daily is above to look above and beyond this, and brings us his journey filled with hope and love, for a better humanity.